Temporal Has a Free Workflow API That Makes Distributed Systems Reliable

Temporal lets you write complex, long-running workflows as simple code. Automatic retries, timeouts, and state persistence — your workflow survives crashes, deploys, and network failures.

Core Concept

// workflow.ts — runs reliably even if the server crashes mid-execution
import { proxyActivities, sleep } from '@temporalio/workflow';

const { sendEmail, chargePayment, shipOrder } = proxyActivities({
  startToCloseTimeout: '30s',
  retry: { maximumAttempts: 3 }
});

export async function orderWorkflow(order: Order): Promise<string> {
  // Step 1: Charge payment (auto-retries on failure)
  const paymentId = await chargePayment(order);

  // Step 2: Wait for warehouse confirmation (can sleep for days)
  await sleep('2 hours');

  // Step 3: Ship order
  const trackingId = await shipOrder(order, paymentId);

  // Step 4: Send confirmation email
  await sendEmail(order.email, `Shipped! Tracking: ${trackingId}`);

  return trackingId;
}

Activities (Side Effects)

// activities.ts — these are the actual implementations
export async function chargePayment(order: Order): Promise<string> {
  const result = await stripe.charges.create({
    amount: order.total,
    currency: 'usd',
    source: order.paymentToken
  });
  return result.id;
}

export async function shipOrder(order: Order, paymentId: string): Promise<string> {
  const shipment = await warehouse.createShipment(order.items);
  return shipment.trackingId;
}

Start Workflows

import { Client } from '@temporalio/client';

const client = new Client();

// Start a workflow
const handle = await client.workflow.start(orderWorkflow, {
  taskQueue: 'orders',
  workflowId: `order-${orderId}`,
  args: [order]
});

// Query status
const result = await handle.result();

// Signal a running workflow
await handle.signal(cancelOrder);

Why This Matters

• Crash-proof: Workflows resume exactly where they left off
• Long-running: Sleep for minutes, hours, or days
• Automatic retries: Built-in retry policies with backoff
• Visibility: Full execution history and debugging

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